3D Printing: Legal Protection for 3D Objects and Product Designs

Technology today develops faster than the legal system and regulations are often running to catch up. Such is the case in 3D printing, which enables anyone to create virtually anything from household items to machinery. This CLE course will explain copyright protection in light of the newest technology in 3D printing and how artists, manufacturers and designers can assert legal protections. The course will use the Star Athletica case to illustrate the regulations as well as provide a comprehensive overview of copyright and trademark protection restrictions as well as the myriad legal challenges posed by 3D printing.

Instructor Bio

Toby Butterfield

Toby Butterfield is a partner with Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz in the firm’s Litigation and Intellectual Property Groups.

Mr. Butterfield has 20 years of experience litigating and counseling on copyright, trademark, defamation, software and digital media, and commercial matters. His clients include media and entertainment companies, major brand owners and designers and manufacturers of luxury goods. His recent work includes successfully representing book publishers in various copyright litigations, a major airline in a trademark dispute, obtaining a fair use dismissal of a case against theater producers for production of a parody play. He obtained injunctive relief for the owner and publisher of Business Traveller magazine in a trademark licensing dispute with a competitor, represented FilmOn, the Over The Top streaming media technology company, in a copyright case against it by all the major networks; and represented HIT Entertainment, Inc. — owner of Barney®, Thomas the Tank Engine™ and Bob the Builder® — in anticounterfeiting efforts which effectively shut down manufacturers and distributors of counterfeit adult costumes of those well known characters.He also counsels producers and publishers on pre-publication and pre-broadcast review of content.

Mr. Butterfield writes and speaks frequently for bar associations and industry organizations. He co-chaired the Entertainment Business Law Seminar at NYU during the annual CMJ Music Festival. He authored "Coming to Terms: Hidden Traps for Media Entities and Producers in Website Terms of Use," for the ABA’s Landslide, and the first chapter of Counseling Content Providers in the Digital Age on defamation for the New York State Bar Association. He also regularly writes for Media Law Resource Center publications on Fair Use, Copyright Termination, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and other hot topics. He has lectured at the Practicing Law Institute and at legal and television industry conferences all over the world. He was an Adjunct Professor at Cardozo Law School, where he taught on Media and Entertainment Law, and since 2014 has been an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School, where he conducts a seminar on Social Media Law and Regulation.

Mr. Butterfield chaired the New York City Bar’s Committee on Entertainment Law and its Committee on State Courts of Superior Jurisdiction. He also chaired WNYC Radio’s Community Advisory Board and was the Administrator of the New York State Supreme Court Screening Panel for Democratic Party judicial candidates in New York County. He has appeared on BBC World News, Forbes TV, and been quoted by The New York Times, Forbes, and many other news and legal publications.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Butterfield was a partner at Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP. He is admitted to practice in New York state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

Craig Whitney

Craig B. Whitney is a partner in the Litigation group, with a focus on copyright, trademark and trade secret disputes.

Mr. Whitney’s representative work includes a landmark victory clarifying copyright fair use and parody on behalf of several well-known musicians; a defense win dismissing copyright infringement claims brought by a putative class of attorneys against the leading legal research websites; a favorable outcome for a high-end beauty products company in a trademark and trade dress action against a manufacturer of knock-off products; a district and appellate court decision dismissing all claims by a proposed class against an international bank for alleged violations of, among other things, the Federal False Marking Act, RICO and the CAN-SPAM Act; and counseling prominent art museums and galleries on domestic and international copyright issues.

Mr. Whitney is a graduate of Cornell University (BS) and Harvard Law School (JD, cum laude). Following law school, he clerked for the Honorable Stephen V. Wilson in the United States District Court of the Central District of California. He is admitted to practice in New York and California.

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